-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email This article was originally published on The Conversation . The Nutrition Facts label, that black and white information box found on nearly every packaged food product in the U.S.
since 1994 , has recently become an icon for consumer transparency. From Apple's "Privacy Nutrition Labels " that disclose how smartphone apps handle user data, to a " Garment Facts" label that standardizes ethical disclosures on clothing, policy advocates across industries invoke "Nutrition Facts" as a model for empowering consumers and enabling socially responsible markets. They argue that intuitive information fixes could solve a wide range of market-driven social ills.
Yet this familiar, everyday product label actually has a complicated legacy. I study food regulation and diet culture and became interested in the Nutrition Facts label while researching the history of Food and Drug Administration policies on food standards and labeling. In 1990, Congress passed the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act , mandating nutrition labels on all packaged foods to help address growing concerns about rising rates of chronic illnesses linked to unhealthy diets.
The FDA introduced its " Nutrition Facts" panel in 1993 as a public health tool that empowered consumers to make healthier choices. The most obvious purpose of the Nutrition Facts label is for consumers to learn the nutritional properties of a food. In practice, however, this label has done much more than simply.